MH17: Ukrainian prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk says bodies held at Torez train station will be sent to Amsterdam

The bodies of 282 people have been recovered as Ukraine's prime minister promises to bring to justice the "bastards" responsible for last Thursday's attack on the Malaysia Airlines passenger plane.

The United Nations Security Council was scheduled to vote at 5:00am Tuesday (AEST) on a resolution that would condemn the downing of the plane, and demand those responsible be held accountable and that armed groups not compromise the integrity of the crash site.

European Union foreign ministers are also due to meet on Tuesday (local time) and could announce more sanctions.

Britain is pushing for tougher measures, and Italy said it expected a "strong and unified response".

But the most the EU is expected to do on Tuesday is to speed up implementation of sanctions against individuals, and possibly companies, agreed in-principle last week before the plane was brought down.

In a televised speech, Ukrainian prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said he hoped bodies of the 298 killed in the attack could be transferred to Amsterdam.

He said 251 of the bodies recovered so far had already been relocated onto a refrigerated train in Torez, 15 kilometres away from the crash site.

Dutch forensic experts have been allowed in to examine the bodies of the victims.

Mr Yatsenyuk complained of an impasse as the pro-Russian rebels in control of the area were not allowing the train to leave.

"These bloody guerrillas do not allow the train to leave the area. We expect that the train will leave the area as soon as possible," he said.

"The Ukrainian government is ready to transfer an international investigation to our Dutch friends [so that] the Dutch side could lead the process of investigation together with the entire international community."

However, a short time after the prime minister's press conference, the head of a Dutch forensic team said the train would set off later on Monday (local time) to a place where "we can do our work".

"The train is going. We don't know the time and we don't know the destination," Peter van Vliet told reporters at the railway station.

"We got a promise: today it is going. I just want the train to go to a place where we can do our work. And that is in the interest of everybody, especially the families of the victims."

Recovery workers did a 'hell of a job'

But Mr van Vilet praised the Ukrainian recovery workers, saying those who collected hundreds of bodies from the giant swathe of land in a war zone did a "hell of a job".

Despite reports some of the bodies may have been looted and were never properly secured during days lying out in the summer sun, Mr van Vliet expressed admiration for the recovery crews that gathered them.

"I'm very impressed about the work that was done over here," he said after inspecting the main crash site, where bodies were still being found a day earlier pinned under chunks of aircraft wreckage.

Citing the heat and the scale of the site, he said: "I think they did a hell of a job in a hell of a place."

Passengers from the Netherlands accounted for two-thirds of the victims.

The recovery operation appears to have finished. Crews of recovery workers in blue suits, that had been combing the countryside gathering bodies from fields of wheat and sunflowers, are nowhere to be seen.

All but one of their tents, a portable toilet, and their ambulances are gone.

Mr van Vliet said in his view the recovery was not entirely complete, but he acknowledged that a full-scale, international operation might never be possible in the conflict zone.

Asked what else would be needed, he said: "A forensic sweep of the entire area. But whether that's possible I don't know."

After visiting refrigerated railway cars where the bodies had been collected, he said he was happy with how they were being stored.

When the doors were opened to allow Mr van Vliet's team inside, heaps of black plastic body bags were visible.

The stench was overpowering. Mr van Vliet and his two colleagues climbed inside with blue plastic gloves and surgical masks to investigate.

Mr van Vliet is also expected to meet rebel leaders.

He declined to give an estimate for how long it might take to identify and repatriate the remains.

"My first priority is identifying the victims," he said.

Dutch prosecutors have opened an investigation into the downing of the passenger plane on suspicion of murder, war crimes and intentionally downing an airliner, a spokesman said.

Based on the Law on International Crimes, the Netherlands can prosecute any individual who committed a war crime against a Dutch citizen.

Yatsenyuk accuses Russia of helping separatists attack plane

Russian president Vladimir Putin earlier called for a "humanitarian corridor", and urged separatists to allow international experts access to the crash site.

"Everything must be done to guarantee the security of international experts at the site of the tragedy," Mr Putin said in a televised address.

Mr Putin reiterated his belief that the incident would not have happened if Ukrainian government forces had not ended a truce and resumed a military campaign against the pro-Russian rebellion in eastern Ukraine.

"However, nobody should - and no-one has the right - to use this tragedy to achieve selfish political ends," he said.

"Such events should not divide people but unite them."

But Mr Yatsenyuk said Russia was on on the "dark side" of a global conflict and bore some responsibility for the attack on the plane.

"This is our priority, a key priority of the entire world - to stop Russian aggression," he said.

"It was Russia who crept the territory of an independent country. It was Russia who sent their agents to Donetsk and Luhansk, Russia supplied illegal weapons, artillery, armed vehicles to these Russian-led terrorists. It was Russia who supported them.

"Together with the entire international community we will bring to justice everyone responsible, including the country which is behind this scene."

"It is clear that Russia must use her influence on the separatists to improve the situation on the ground," Mr Rutte said.

"If in the coming days access to the disaster area remains inadequate, then all political, economic and financial options are on the table against those who are directly or indirectly responsible for that."

Mr Yatsenyuk condemned the actions of pro-Russian separatists in the area where the plane went down, but said in order to have an investigation, the government needed to communicate with them.

"We have a government-established special commission and in order to recover these bodies, in order to have an investigation, we have to talk to these bastards," he said.

"We did it and due to this fact we already recovered and collected the bodies and collected a number of evidence. This is an ongoing and never-ending process."

Malaysia Airlines offers compensation

Malaysia Airlines says it will make an initial payment of $US5,000 to families of passengers aboard flight MH17 as a goodwill gesture.

The national carrier said it would provide the money to each passenger's immediate family to ease "their economic needs".

"Funds have already been made available for this purpose," it said in a statement.

"This financial assistance will not be offset against the final compensation, nor affect the families' legal rights to claim."

The airline said it was also providing families with hotel accommodation, meals and transport assistance, in addition to counselling.

Fighting continues in Donetsk

Meanwhile, three people were killed when fighting briefly broke out near the railway station at the heart of the rebel stronghold of Donetsk, in what separatists said was an attempt by government forces to seize back the east Ukrainian city.

The government in Kiev denied sending the regular army into the centre of Donetsk, which the separatists captured in April, but said small, "self-organised", pro-Ukrainian groups were fighting the pro-Russian rebels in the city.

When a rebel leader reported shooting at the railway station, dozens jumped into minibuses to join the fray and artillery fire sent plumes of smoke skywards.

But almost as quickly as the shelling started, it ended, leaving a control tower at the railway station with shattered windows.

By early afternoon, local authorities said the trains were running normally and the station had been only slightly damaged.

Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko says he has ordered government forces to halt their fire in a 40-kilometre zone around the MH17 crash site, which is 60km from Donetsk.

Ukrainian finance minister Oleksander Shlapak said Kiev's "anti-terrorist campaign" was costing more than $130 million a month and that Kiev needed additional funds to cover the mounting bill.